Old friend and longtime mentor of mine, Hugo Burnham, got a giant writeup in the Boston paper. You can read about it here.

Interesting that Andy Gill (his old bandmate from Gang of Four) still seems threatened by Hugo. Just has to be top foogin dog.

One thing you have to hand to the English- they say what they feel. No pretending it’s all nicey-nice after all these years. No pretending that they don’t have opinions. Sometimes I wonder if the reason that Americans lack the courage to speak our minds in matters personal is that we’re a culture of shoe salesmen. You wouldn’t want to offend someone…. how could you finish the sale?

Winding up the set list for this week. There are a lot more women’s voices this week- Lady Laistee, Mala Rodriguez, Princess Anies, K-Reen, more songs with singers that carry melodies. Last time was a real sausage party. It got to be a bit much at about the 2 hour 20 minute mark.

Met with DJ SamaSama tonight. We played each other a couple of tracks each, and I realized that we are coming from seriously different places. SamaSama wants to challenge the listener- he’s bringing some really offbeat indie stuff. And by that I mean, not hip hop. Third Eye Foundation and some Bollywood themes from the 1960s- field recordings of gamelon players, that kind of thing. It’s interesting stuff…

But I am bringing music for people to get up and dance to, and that’s what my mission is, as I see it. Different worlds….

Traktor DJ Studio continues to be a real delight to work with. I start to fall in love with it, and then it does something completely unexplained and annoying, like wipe out the complete playlist from the 19th. I was saving that. God, when i finally pay for the upgrade, I hope they have some of this stuff fixed.

I am kinda digging this Passi track “Je Zap et Je Mat,” though I have found a lot of Passi’s stuff to be kind of pop, a little too safe. Real radio-ready stuff. On the other hand, new discovery of the week is Mala Rodriguez. Check out the photo:

Que sabrosa, Øno?

She guested on a track that was on the “Y Tu Mama Tambien” soundtrack. Expect to hear that one on Friday night, party people. I have a completely new set, this week. I think that there will be a little more Latin Hip Hop, more Saian Supa Crew, because they have totally won me over. I thought they were fun but kind of silly the first time I heard them, but every time I hear them, it makes me happy.

Also, the female vocal on “Laisse pas Trainer ton Fils” by NTM is j.u.s.t. i.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e. It puts a lump in my throat every time she opens her mouth. That’s going to be early in the set. I want it ta hitcha while you’re still fresh, bªbª.

There are rumors of a large contingent of Francophonic femmes coming down from the ATL just to see what all the fuss is about. How about that? Sounds like a party.

You may or may not recall that there was much discussion in this space about what the Bush admin was so anxious about hiding from the 9/11 Commission. I think that we might finally have some insight.

Referring to the Homeland Security Department’s color-coded warnings instituted in the wake of 9/11, the former translator, Sibel Edmonds, told Salon, “We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001. There was that much information available.” Edmonds is offended by the Bush White House claim that it lacked foreknowledge of the kind of attacks made by al-Qaida on 9/11. “Especially after reading National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice [Washington Post Op-Ed on March 22] where she said, we had no specific information whatsoever of domestic threat or that they might use airplanes. That’s an outrageous lie. And documents can prove it’s a lie.”

Let me preface this with this caveat- it might be a hoax… But what it appears to be is a woman’s diary of her motorcycle tours of the Chernobyl “Dead Zone” in the (former) Soviet Union. Got this in an email from B.- this morning, and I have been looking at it over and over for the last hour.

I really appreciate you guys’ input, but I need to perhaps mention now that I don’t do fun sunglasses so well.

I have kind of a government issue head. Not to mention the corresponding haircut.

This is me in the old pair of sunglasses I had that broke after three years. Nice, square, durable. Three years is a long time to carry the weight of fun sunglasses. I was really asking for a color preference. I like the gold ones because they are kind of retro and so out that they are a little risky. I like that. See, to me that takes the place of buying fun sunglasses- buying sunglasses that look kind of state trooperish. Like “You in a heap o’ trouble, boy…”-ish. Because that makes me not have to live up to the sunglasses. You buy a really *cool* pair of shades, and you have to look cool in them. You can’t look a little tired and ready to go home from work in them, because they’re *cool.* You have to be ready to go out and party all night, rocker.

And I find that to just be too much work.

Oakleys, well, I see the Oakley logo and I think “Bike Cop.” Too modern, too styled.